Just thought I’d paste in here with the current classic column Cecil has on the front page.
I also like Where are all the baby pigeons? 
Just a few new photos.
From Wednesday, Kenny and Laurie aged 4 and 3 days, respectively. Kenny was all fresh and pink when he hatched but notice how he’s turned black. Laurie’s turning black too, but she’s staying a little lighter. Note Laurie’s little “angel wings.” They opened their eyes on this day, but they’re snoozing here.
On Thursday, ages 5 and 4 days, they’re flopped on their stomachs, kind of an interesting pose. And a close-up, with Kenny on the left and Laurie on the right. Note Laurie’s black foot.
And yesterday (Friday), ages 6 and 5 days, with their eyes at least a little open.
They’re growing big and seem healthy. The other pair – Charlie and Mandie – still sleep here at night.
I’m a little worried about Henry. He’s not been around for a few days. Geri comes alone in the evenings. We feed her as best we can, but she’s not as sure of us as Henry is and often mistakenly thinks we’re chasing her away. Squeak, their kid, was here taking a bath in the water dish today.
The squirrel made a brief reappearance a couple of days ago. He seemed to be taking part of his home away with him. Had a big chunk of it in his mouth and was trying to go down the tree but had so much in his mouth that he couldn’t see where he was going.
I have some more videos to upload too. Will try to get that done soon.
Okay, I have a couple of new videos uploaded. Both from Thursday, when Kenny and Laurie were 5 and 4 days old, respectively.
There’s this one with Laurie an active little thing, but Kenny just wants to snooze. Her eye opens at one point.
And Laurie (I think) is chillin’ out with Dad. Not much action in this one. She was moving around a lot more when I went to get the camera. Kenny is hidden underneath Dad somewhere.
I have another one of The Bully feeding them this morning (Saturday morning), but it’s five minutes long and will take a long time to upload. I’ll have to try to get that one on later this weekend.
Got it: Feeding time, yesterday morning (Saturday morning). Runs five minutes. Took four hours to upload!
Today, 8-day-old Kenny has started snapping at me. Tough little guy, heh. Both are growing their feather shafts now.
Kenny’s a pig. 
He is a little piggy, isn’t he?
Henry showed up again yesterday after a few days’ absence, and we think Geri managed to convey to him that we were giving food, because we were able to make sure she had a relatively good feed. It’s difficult to feed Geri when she’s alone, as she’s timid without her man around. Very skittish. When Henry’s with her, she’s much more confident. But we managed to feed her for once without her thinking we were trying to chase her away. She left, than a little later Henry shows up. She showed up awhile after.
A downpour burst out while Henry was here eating, so when he’d had enough and wanted to leave, he couldn’t. He hopped up onto the edge of the balcony and just stared out at the rain. He really seemed to want to leave. We’re guessing they have squabs of their own right now, and he wanted to get back to feed them with some of this good food he’d just partaken of, and more importantly to protect them from the rain. (We don’t know how open their nest might be.) And here’s the weird part, and the wife had the same impression I did: Eventually Henry came over and jumped up into the window like he’s asking for help! He wasn’t asking for food, as there was still plenty of food on the floor. A full water dish. No other pidgees were harassing him (he sometimes seems to be asking for help getting rid of a rival pidgee). It was almost like he was asking us to turn off the rain. Really. We think they believe we control the sun, the way we can make it light inside here at night. So maybe Henry thought I could turn off the water outside. He was out of luck though. He went back to the rail to stare out and flew off when the rain died down enough. Flew in the direction of where we believe their nest is, with Geri following close behind.
And this being August, Henry’s been visiting us for five years now.
That’s a good age for a pidgee, isn’t it?
I think that’s a good age for a feral pidgee. I think I’ve read 3-5 years for feral pigeons, up to 15 for domesticated. But we feed Henry a lot, and I’ve seen some reports of sightings of the same pidgee for as many as 20 or 25 years, so who knows.
Poor Spooky, she of the broken leg, has been coming around solo for a while lately. We can only hope her mate is busy on the nest. It would be a shame if something happened to him.
The new squabs, 11 and 10 days old today (Wednesday), are getting big. It won’t be long until we’ll have to move them to the roomier flower box. Feathers are starting to form on the feather shafts. It may still be too early to tell, but it looks like both will be mainly white. But is that a touch of red we’re seeing? Kenny is a little attack pidgee, really lunging at me to snap when I give him a little rub. Has his father’s temperament.
Speaking of red, Big Red appeared again yesterday, and it looks like something has happened to his tail again. The tail feathers have not been cut off smoothly like happened a couple of years ago but rather ripped out. Slight damage to the tip of his left wing also. What does this guy get up to anyway? We saw him a week or two ago, and he looked fine then. Whatever happened, it’s not hampering his flying ability.
Transferred Kenny and Laurie to the flower box today (Friday). Or yesterday maybe I should say, as it’s almost 4am Saturday now. Kenny turns two weeks old on Saturday. They’re growing big, and it’s obvious now that both will be white. The parents seem to have accepted the transfer even if they don’t like it. We made sure they’d still feed the squabs. Photos soon.
Charlie and Mandy are still sleeping here at night also. Away all day but always come back for the night. Two months old on Sunday. Big Pidgee and Little Pidgee used to chase the old set of squabs away finally when they had new ones, bit The Bully and Ladyboy don’t seem interested in doing that.
Monday night and the new guys are 15 and 16 days old. Standing up some now.
And we’ve noticed something funny with Ladyboy, the mother. You know I transferred the squabs to the roomier flower box. And moved the flower box close to the glass sliding doors to keep it away from the rain. They’re big enough now that Mama doesn’t stay right on them anymore. Instead she joins the rest of the family over on the rails (except Mandie prefers the concrete verge).
Well, we noticed that if we watch TV at night, Ladyboy will come watch too. Or at least that’s the way it looks. See, we use floor cushions in front of the TV. The set is a 40" Sony Bravia. We don’t watch regular TV, just movies and TV series on DVD. And we always turn out the lights. So we think it looks to Ladyboy like maybe we’re trying to sneak up on her babies – lights out, crouched low on the floor. And she seems to be taking a protective stance over them. Then when we’re finished watching and we’ve gotten up and turned the lights back on, she goes back to the rails. But in the meantime, it really looks like she’s watching TV with us, especially since she’s turned toward the screen much of the time. We wondered if the images on the screen held her interest, but she only does this when we’re down on the floor by the door, not if it’s on, say, BBC or MTV or something and it’s just running while we potter around. So we think she’s just bravely protecting the squabs, but we always ask her if she liked the movie anyway. If she’s turned away from the screen, that means she didn’t care for it.
Saturday morning and little Kenny, he whom you saw cracking open his egg, is three weeks old. Sister Laurie is 20 days. They’re both starting to peer out over the edge of the box like they’re thinking of going walkabout. I’ll try to post new photos this weekend.
Mandie didn’t come back last night. Her first night away. Just turned two months this past Monday. I think our little girl has grown up. Charlie still came back for the night though.
Ladyboy and The Bully have been getting it on again lately too. And the wife reports she saw Ladyboy on top! Kinky little girl. (Ladyboy, not the wife. Although …)
Still Saturday morning and 20-day-old Laurie is the first out of the box! The Bully has recently been standing off to the side cooing at them in an apparent bid to entice them out of the nest. Looks like Laurie made it out before her older brother. Now she may not be able to get back in. We’ll let her run around the balcony some and then put her back into the box later if she needs help.
EDIT: This is hilarious. She keeps stretching her neck to poke her head into the flower box and flapping her wings some but can’t make it back in. She wants back with brother.
Okay, I took pity on Laurie and put her back in the box. Seemed desperate to get back in. She immediately burrowed underneath Kenny to get away from me.
Awwwwwww.
And she’s not dared to venture out since. But they’re both getting almost too big for even the flower box. Sunday and 21 and 22 days old, three whole weeks. Dad’s trying to coax them out like usual, but they seem good where they are now.
Meanwhile, some new photos:
From Wednesday, August 14, we see Dad snoozing on the job. You can just see his eyes are closed. And a close-up of Kenny and Laurie. Here they’re 10 and 11 days old, and you can see the feathers starting to come out. I’m not sure now which is which in these two photos.
Two days later, and they’ve been switched to the flower box. That’s Laurie on this side, Kenny on the far side, 12 and 13 days old, respectively.
And the next day, ages 13 and 14 days. Kenny’s on the left, a full two weeks here. Can you believe this was the little guy breaking out of the egg?
And now kind of a sad one: The last photo of Mandie, last Sunday, August 18. she’s still gone, tonight being her third night away. The last we saw of her was Thursday night. We hope she’s okay and hasn’t been eaten by someone or something. 
We may never know. But you see how pretty she turned out. In this photo, she’s 2 months and 1 day old, just a day shy of 9 weeks. Charlie still sleeps here at night though, but the parents seem to want him to leave.
Then back to Kenny and Laurie, they’re 16 and 15 days here last Monday. I believe that’s Laurie on the left. As you’ll see, whereas they’re both mostly white, she’s turned out to have a white head, while Kenny’s is dark.
Last Thursday, and you can see Laurie’s white-headedness more.
And Friday, ages 20 and 19 days. Kenny still has a touch of yellow baby fuzz on his head, but you can really see the black coming in here. And note the “mask” effect on Kenny, the patch of white feathers on his cheek. Not an uncommon pattern from what we can tell.
And finally we come to yesterday (Saturday), with Kenny a full three weeks and Laurie 20 days. Laurie and Kenny in the box. I guess Laurie does have a little bit of black speckle on her head, but not much. And then Laurie outside the box. 
She was trying to figure out a way to get back in, but when she saw me come along she hunkered down. Always seems terrified of me. Again, I ended up giving her a boost back into the box, and she’s not left it since. We didn’t see it happen but figure she must have fallen out while excited, flapping her wings as Papa stood nearby cooing at them to entice them out.
That’s all. I do have another video, from Friday, but there’s not much going on. It’s six minutes long and will take awhile to upload, so I’ll tackle that maybe tomorrow.
Again, we’re a little sad about Mandie. Hope she’s okay. But one bit of good news is it looks like Spooky’s mate has reappeared, so maybe he was just on the nest after all. With her broken leg, it must be tricky to lay eggs, but she does manage sex. Her leg doesn’t bother her at all, we’ve even seen her scratching her head with it, so she’s not in pain. Balances on one leg like a pro. Seems to have adjusted very well.
And here’s the new video. Not much happens in this one. Six minutes long, took six hours to upload. Maybe it takes so long because we don’t have 3G yet? At least not in our area. Should be this year, then maybe it will be faster. But that’s Dad who pops into the lower left at one point. This is from Friday, when the squabs were 20 and 19 days old.
Today is Monday, and they’re 23 and 22 days old. Still won’t come out of the box, although Kenny’s been thinking about it, judging from his curious looks.
Maybe Mandie’s out sowing her wild oats. Is she old enough to get a boyfriend?
Not sure. I don’t think they’re sexually active until six months. But I’m sure I’ve seen some male pidgees hitting up some of our “underage” females before. So maybe. But she seems gone. It’s late Tuesday night here now, and we’ve not seen her at all for five days. Not even stopping by for a drink of water. Of course, we’re not keeping watch all day long out there, but this is still odd. Hope she’s okay.
Did see the squirrel again last week. Just once. Rummaging around through the tree.